What are names that used to be reserved for the upper class but are now widely used by everyone

[hcarter8]

I remember reading the freakonomics books years ago about how a lot of names start of posh and eventually filter down throughout the years and become very common place names. Olivia is a prime example for me i grew up in the 80s and Olivia back then was looked at as an upper class old woman's name that only "posh" people would've chosen, 30 years later it has became quite commonplace and number 1 name. Emily is another past number 1 name that springs to mind also wasn't used commonly until the 90s/00s when it hit its peak and began being used by all lower/working/upper class people.

A lot of the newer names that are being used now like Arabella, Ophelia, Isabella would've of been mega posh 20 years ago but have now made their way into the mainstream.

I'm in Scotland too and totally disagree.

Are some of the so-called 'posh' names in family trees influenced by French names coming over with the Hugenots? I can imagine that unfamiliar might equal 'posh', when they were just 'foreign'?

*huguenots. Not Hugenots....

No you're wrong about that. I was a nanny in London in the 80s, two families I worked with, pretty well off middle class people, big houses, domestic staff etc had little girls named Olivia, it was obviously newly fashionable in their circles. Olivia still has a posh vibe to me.

The name caught on across all classes later. That's what often happens. It's a bit similar with names like Charlotte and Lucy.

Agree with you @MissBuffyAnneSummers these are all really common in Scotland. I’m NE and the only one which would be considered round here to be a little on the posh side is Phoebe. Even then, it’s becoming more mainstream.

Maybe different parts of Scotland or different socio economic class? Round here,common names are Connor,Kyle,Kaidan, ...even a Conan!
For girls ...names hypenated with Mae. Various adaptations of traditional names.

Vroom Not very likely. The Huguenots were Protestant refugees and like other Protestants at that time (17th/early 18th cent) took most of their first names from the Bible. So Sarah, Joseph, Peter etc etc. Not many were 'exotic' to English Protestants. More about them here. https://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/tracing-huguenot-ancestors/

Pemba Olivia was invented by Shakespeare soon after 1600. It's been used by people familiar with his works ever since. It's dropped in and out of fashion ever since, but it's not particularly class related.

Lucy has been popular since the Middle ages https://www.britishbabynames.com/blog/2020/01/name-of-the-week-lucy.html

Charlotte was also very popular in the past: " #20 in 1860, #25 in 1870, #35 in 1880, #50 in 1890 and #64 in 1900. "#https://www.britishbabynames.com/blog/2015/08/charlotte.html

@nameXname when I was at state primary school in the 1970 'normal' names the girls at school had were names like Debbie, Claire, Louise, Sarah, Karen, Tracey, Jane, Susan/Suzanne.

Names like Charlotte, Emily, Lucy, Alice, (and later, Olivia) were not unheard of but belonged to girls who typically went to private school. They would have been thought of as a bit pretentious maybe. Later they became popular across the class spectrum. Chloe for example was very posh back then, but I have heard it described on here as 'chavvy'.

I know it's true that Isabella was popular across all classes in Victorian times, but then it disappeared for many decades.

Also, surely any name that is taken from Shakespeare is going to be quite middle class, isn't it? At least initially. See also Imogen, Juliet, Miranda.

I remember my grandma laughing at the name Toby, like it was the poshest name she’d ever heard. But I’d definitely say it’s quite mainstream now days!

Imogen
Alexandra
Theodore
Rupert

Yes definitely, the same with Rupert.

I can remember when names like Thomas, Edward and William came back into fashion they initially seemed a bit posh too. The boys I was at school with had names like David, Andrew, Mark, Michael, Stephen.

What various posters say about their own recent experience may very well be true and I am not for one moment questioning it, but that was NOT WHAT THE OP WAS ASKING. They asked whether names such as Isabella started off as upper class and then spread to other classes. For many names, including Isabella, that is simply not the case. Many names have fallen in and out of fashion, but that's not at all the same as having first been exclusively upper class and then spreading to other classes. As the example of Lucy makes clear, it was one of the most common names- in both senses of the word - way back in Roman times. And Isabel was one of the most common names in all classes in medieval England.

Proper posh names are properly classic and very dull. But then they give themselves stupid nicknames. My husband's aunt's husband was called George but he was always known as Honks. No idea why- not posh enough to know.

My husband is the first born son and they are always given the same middle name, and it's quite dull. Having an interesting name used to be very non-U, not aure if its the same now.

Ophelia has gone from posh to poor in one quick jump due to the radford daughter using it.

I think that always happens with names (and house design and stuff) - fashions trickle down.

She means in the last generation, not since Roman times. 🙄

I agree with Phoebe

Georgina/Georgiana

Boys
Hector
Conrad

I'm in my 50s and I'd say the following names were more common among middle-to-upper-class people in my age group, but seem to be acceptable anywhere now:

James
William
Oliver
Thomas

Emily
Sophie
Alice
Charlotte

The following were pretty rare for anyone but would definitely have been seen as posh on the rare occasions they were encountered in my age group:

Charles/Charlie
George
Henry/Harry
Frederick/Freddie

Olivia
Lydia
Phoebe
Chloe

St John with a double barrelled surname

Tarquin and Quentin
Georgiana and Lucinda

Old MN jokes.

The original Balonz thread may be in classics - it was very funny.

‘Reserved’??? There’s no ‘reserved’ about it.

I think that most of the names that I see listed on mumsnet as posh - Ophelia, Arabella, Ottilie, Sebastian, Hugo, Monty etc are now not being used at all by “posh” people, I actually don’t think they’d go near them.

I’ve actually noticed upper/upper-middle class people using names that might be considered “chavvy” by many people eg: Forest, Huck, Wilder, Sky etc . And I think this fits in with a trend more generally among this population to mimic/ appropriate a more impoverished lifestyle (e.g not brushing their children’s hair, no vaccinations, foraging for their dinner etc).

And then another set of upper/ upper-middle class people using slightly off-beat two syllable classic names like Freda or Willa which links to a general trend to use feminisations of male names which hasn’t been picked up I think by middle & working class people.

😂😂😂